Days later, the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition authorized all of its commands to support FEMA requests, saying that the country is in a national emergency so they “must engage accordingly.”

The U.S. military is uniquely poised to assist in the production of personal protective equipment because of its expertise in additive manufacturing, or 3D printing.

David Hamm, an engineer in the Mechanisms and Modeling and Simulation Lab at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., inspects a 3D printed face shield as part of the COVID-19 response…

The Marine Corps’ Advanced Manufacturing Operations Cell (AMOC) was the first to receive FEMA’s request for 220 face shields before alerting other Department of the Navy manufacturers.

“Every (additive manufacturing) producer I reached out to stepped up,” said Marine Capt. Matthew Audette, an advanced manufacturing project officer with AMOC. “It speaks volumes of our additive manufacturing community that every group was confident that they could produce the entire request on their own. We broke it up to distribute the load.”

A face shield is manufactured using 3-D printing in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s request to the Department of the Navy in support of COVID-19 response effort at…

At Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, 1st Special Forces Group soldiers who normally use sewing machines to repair parachutes are now producing surgical masks, according to the Defense Department.

The Group Support Battalion is creating the masks, along with prototypes for respirator masks and 3D face shields, for its local Madigan Army Medical Center and regional partners.

The Aerial Delivery Platoon is already able to produce 200 masks in a day with expectations to eventually produce 1,000 to 1,500 masks per week, said Army Lt. Col. Christopher S. Jones, the battalion’s commander.

“I believe this is a phenomenal effort to help our health care professionals and fellow Americans,” Jones said. “We’re collaborating with (Army Special Operations Forces) and conventional forces across the Army to make a difference. The effort in and of itself is a worthwhile exercise in how to innovate to provide solutions, especially as the U.S. military has the best capability in the world.”